Full Moon in Aries

4:57 am AHST 10/20/2021
7:57 am  PDT   10/20/2021
2:57 pm  UTC  10/20/2021

This is one of those charts that makes astrologers at first glance breathe in and hold it a second before breathing out again. To begin with, a Full Moon in Aries has with it a signature of Mars energy, Mars being the ruler of Aries. That means it affects our “take action” energy, our physicality, and our aggressive energies as well. They’re primed. But Mars is now in the opposite sign of Libra, and conjoined with the Sun at the Full Moon, and so we’re pulled in two directions at once, immersed in oppositional energies. It’s a very stop/go, foot on both the brake and gas pedal kind of feeling. And also relationally it’s tension around my thoughts, desires and feelings versus yours, and the challenges that are incurred.

But that’s not all. This Full Moon is conjoined with Eris, the sister of Mars, the troublemaker at the party, the uninvited one, the ruler of discord. Her discord isn’t just plain meanness, it’s born out of our own prejudices and our aversions. So we may find these coming out unexpectedly in our interactions, since there’s yet another factor involved: Pluto. 

That oppositional energy—Sun/Mars opposed Moon/Eris—is on a balance beam, with Pluto at the fulcrum point, at a right angle to both sides, called a T-square. Pluto is the higher octave of Mars, and intensifies the karmic lessons of our relational dilemmas, the Libra to Aries, You and/or Me. With the Sun and Mars together squaring Pluto we can be the bull in the china shop, but since they’re in Libra, it’s more relational than physical. The Moon in Aries together with Eris is a bit of a taunter, a prodding energy, spoiling for a fight. We may go out on a limb before we realize where we are. Pluto will bring out whatever’s unconscious in these realms, stripping away artifice and pretense.

Furthermore, on a national scale, the Sun and Moon are at the exact 27 degree mark to the natal degree of US’s Pluto, its birth chart from 1776. And since Pluto rules karma, our pants are down, the emperor has no clothes, and our war-making and imperialist designs are on the table for all to see. But all over the world, we are wondering what are we all going to do with the most massive arsenal of destructive weaponry in the history of our planet. Have we reached our limit? When Pluto reaches the 27 degree mark of Capricorn next year, the karma of the US presents its subpoena, and we all have to answer it.

In short, this Full Moon is reflecting to us our relationship with aggression. Mercury and Jupiter have gone direct as of the 17^th and 18^th, and Jupiter in Aquarius’s trine to the Sun and Mars now pushes us to tell the truth, to question our ideals, to open the secret files and let justice be served. Mercury in opposition to Chiron also asks us to bring out in the open those condemning documents, in a quest for healing.

Admittedly, our path to healing on this planet is going to take quite a while, but in the meantime, each of us can work the revolution within ourselves. What is our relationship with aggression? Are we able to use that force constructively, to jump, dance, sing, work out, speak out when we need to? Or do we turn it against ourselves, hold it inside and then become depressed and unconscious; and do we then project that aggression onto others, and feel justified in vengeful acts?

This Full Moon will bring our aggression to the surface, which could create tension in the crustal plates and weather systems of the Earth, as 7.8 billion people feel the weight of our impending extinction, the hopeless careening of capitalism toward economic collapse, and the rise of fascism and continuing corruption in governments around the world. This is not an easy time to be alive.

But we must remember, we are in a period of massive transition, the end of a thousands-year-old paradigm. Aware of the gigantic inequality of rich and poor, and how we hoard our resources, and with drought and famine knocking at our doors, are we going to stand up for the kinds of change that must be made in order to work this through? On a personal level, are we going to continue to work to heal the traumas of our past so that we don’t pass them on to the next generations and to our loved ones?

This Full Moon is full of these questions, ones which in time we will have to answer, since with Pluto, we cannot prevaricate. Pluto demands we make a choice.